Our journey has taken us further south and west to the city of San Diego, one our favourite cities in the United States. We had come to San Diego only last February for a week and enjoyed ourselves greatly so we decided to come back and visit again. One of the main attractions here is the weather, which has arange between 65oF and 80 oF with no humidity – perfect.
We had decided not to cram too much into this week as many of the big attractions we had seen only last year. So this was a week to catch up on a few things. There are several things that are hard to keep up on the road, especially when you only are in one place for just a few days. An example of one thing is going to see the dentist. We had managed to squeeze in a trip to the dentist back in Santa Fe which revealed Jack needed an extraction to remove a stubborn baby tooth, and Mark had to get a crown fitted (not a surprise). It was relatively easy to find a dentist in San Diego but the treatment for Mark meant finding one that could measure, manufacture and fit a crown in a day. Fortunately there is a process that makes this possible but it was still a four hour procedure – oh the wonders of modern technology.
Back last May Mark had been bought some ballroom dance classes by our friend Doris – and we had enjoyed these so much we had taken more lessons. So we were hooked. This had been another thing that had been hard to keep up – not too much space in a motor home for the Tango. Fortunately we had managed to arrange some classes in Phoenix which really reminded us how much we enjoyed dancing so we arranged for more lessons in San Diego, at Champion Ballroom. This dance studio is owned by Mary Murphy who is a judge on Fox TVs “So you think you can dance” – Emily who is fascinated by celebrities wanted her autograph but was too shy to ask so Karen had to step in and act as intermediary. Our instructor was Vanessa from New Zealand who was delightful. Jack and Emily have been great, as they have had to endure sitting for many hour whilst their parents strutted their stuff on the dance floor.
One of the things we really enjoyed on our last visit to San Diego was the Wildlife Park (affiliated to the world famous San Diego Zoo), which is located about 30 miles north of the city. The thing we like about this zoo is that it has vast open exhibit areas where herds of animals run freely. Unfortunately they don’t let the predators in with their prey – the public would most likely be too squeamish to deal with this – even so is probably the nearest you can get to being on safari. There are various ways of getting through these enclosures – the cheapest solution is to take the safari tour which is a series of open air carriages towed by through the park by a truck. This was our choice. Jack and Emily’s favourite exhibit is the lorikeet enclosure where you get to feed these colourful birds in their aviary. You take in little pots of nectar and the birds come and land on you. Last time we went Emily was terrified – today she had overcome her terror and loved it! It takes a good day to walk around as all the exhibits are so spacious.
We have tried to keep up with Jack’s involvement in scouts as we have been travelling. He is a fully fledged Lone Scout. So far Karen has managed to get him on two campouts in Florida. Fortunately we managed to get him linked up with a Scout Troop 970 in San Diego. About 90% of this troop are the children of US Navy personnel and the scout masters are all in the Navy or are married to service person. As you might expect everything was organised with military precision. As luck would have it there was a Scout Camporee the weekend we are in San Diego – so we drop off Jack on Friday night. On Saturday, at 7 am, Karen gets dropped off at the scout campsite in Balboa Park, as she has volunteered to help with the judging the 'Scout Spirit' competition – which essentially means being shouted at by 300 scouts. Even this uplifting experience was not sufficient to beat back the cold wind on this day. Jack had a wonderful time, even though he had to sleep under canvas on his own through a thunder storm on the Saturday night.
It has not been so easy for Emily to carry on with her Girl Scouts. So whilst Jack was on his Camporee with Karen she and Mark went to San Diego Zoo. Also we were able to visit the Girl Scout council in San Diego and get her moved up to a Junior and registered as Juliet (the Girl Scout equivalent of a Lone Scout). We now just have to get her linked up with troops on our travels now.
We had decided not to cram too much into this week as many of the big attractions we had seen only last year. So this was a week to catch up on a few things. There are several things that are hard to keep up on the road, especially when you only are in one place for just a few days. An example of one thing is going to see the dentist. We had managed to squeeze in a trip to the dentist back in Santa Fe which revealed Jack needed an extraction to remove a stubborn baby tooth, and Mark had to get a crown fitted (not a surprise). It was relatively easy to find a dentist in San Diego but the treatment for Mark meant finding one that could measure, manufacture and fit a crown in a day. Fortunately there is a process that makes this possible but it was still a four hour procedure – oh the wonders of modern technology.
Back last May Mark had been bought some ballroom dance classes by our friend Doris – and we had enjoyed these so much we had taken more lessons. So we were hooked. This had been another thing that had been hard to keep up – not too much space in a motor home for the Tango. Fortunately we had managed to arrange some classes in Phoenix which really reminded us how much we enjoyed dancing so we arranged for more lessons in San Diego, at Champion Ballroom. This dance studio is owned by Mary Murphy who is a judge on Fox TVs “So you think you can dance” – Emily who is fascinated by celebrities wanted her autograph but was too shy to ask so Karen had to step in and act as intermediary. Our instructor was Vanessa from New Zealand who was delightful. Jack and Emily have been great, as they have had to endure sitting for many hour whilst their parents strutted their stuff on the dance floor.
One of the things we really enjoyed on our last visit to San Diego was the Wildlife Park (affiliated to the world famous San Diego Zoo), which is located about 30 miles north of the city. The thing we like about this zoo is that it has vast open exhibit areas where herds of animals run freely. Unfortunately they don’t let the predators in with their prey – the public would most likely be too squeamish to deal with this – even so is probably the nearest you can get to being on safari. There are various ways of getting through these enclosures – the cheapest solution is to take the safari tour which is a series of open air carriages towed by through the park by a truck. This was our choice. Jack and Emily’s favourite exhibit is the lorikeet enclosure where you get to feed these colourful birds in their aviary. You take in little pots of nectar and the birds come and land on you. Last time we went Emily was terrified – today she had overcome her terror and loved it! It takes a good day to walk around as all the exhibits are so spacious.
We have tried to keep up with Jack’s involvement in scouts as we have been travelling. He is a fully fledged Lone Scout. So far Karen has managed to get him on two campouts in Florida. Fortunately we managed to get him linked up with a Scout Troop 970 in San Diego. About 90% of this troop are the children of US Navy personnel and the scout masters are all in the Navy or are married to service person. As you might expect everything was organised with military precision. As luck would have it there was a Scout Camporee the weekend we are in San Diego – so we drop off Jack on Friday night. On Saturday, at 7 am, Karen gets dropped off at the scout campsite in Balboa Park, as she has volunteered to help with the judging the 'Scout Spirit' competition – which essentially means being shouted at by 300 scouts. Even this uplifting experience was not sufficient to beat back the cold wind on this day. Jack had a wonderful time, even though he had to sleep under canvas on his own through a thunder storm on the Saturday night.
It has not been so easy for Emily to carry on with her Girl Scouts. So whilst Jack was on his Camporee with Karen she and Mark went to San Diego Zoo. Also we were able to visit the Girl Scout council in San Diego and get her moved up to a Junior and registered as Juliet (the Girl Scout equivalent of a Lone Scout). We now just have to get her linked up with troops on our travels now.
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